Joe Rogan Experience #1618 — Mat Fraser Transcript

Transcript

0:00 the joe rogan experience train by day joe rogan podcast by night all day Oh, okay. advance what you're gonna to have to do? you're training for a 40 meter dash or a marathon you know it's yeah it keeps it interesting like How long does that take? Just because it's easier on the joints. every day yeah i think if you're conditioned for and that's all you're doing yeah you know and but he lifts weights too yeah yeah i've met cam i met him a couple years ago he's

3:17 Yep. balls get thrown at you of something that you're not used to and i mean that's basically that's My goal was to go to the Olympics for weightlifting. back room just doing cleaning jerks and squats. he signed me up and paid my entry fee and then if i won any money he i had to buy a pair of Like, are there more competitions like this? to something that you not just excelled at i I mean, I think you're the winningest guy ever, right?

7:05 end up here like this wasn't supposed to be my life you know i was a mechanical engineer you Oh, no. lift with a big explosion at the top and like loud pop on one side. Like, I've never had an injury like that. and so then a couple days goes by and I'm being super cautious, like basically stripped all the way out of my training. And so anyways, I got went to the competition did terribly you know like

9:57 At the time, hated the guy. And so it's like, It's actually true. just kept testing down, down, down. I watched like the first bit of it. Yeah yeah i haven't seen the whole thing yet it's fucking no shit yeah paris freestyle and my dad talks about like he would be in the locker room But the American team did that too back then, supposedly. reading the article uh like they were testing it at york barbell and like i remember reading the article uh like they were testing it at york barbell and like i remember

13:49 For sure. get in the way i was like what are you talking about what are you talking yeah i mean there's I competed against him six or eight months prior. And it's like, like you've been in the sport for years. You have to give one hour a day of where you are and they show up. like these guys are here for drug testing i compete in the sport is it okay if they just sit there in wow yeah so the cross

16:52 and you just go back to bed. so often every competition out of competition you get to know the guy that's like in your region And I didn't know about the drug testing protocols. You have to assume that you're going to get tested at some point, right? And it's like started as like a hangover cure, right? so you can't even do IV vitamin trips interesting yeah but you can do some IVs like I said no IVs

19:42 I think it's, so I've had it once. And so I'm not 100 sure i don't know that happens pretty often amongst people that do CrossFit. and it's going to tear your quads. if you're not conditioned to run marathons yeah i mean it's like any sport of like if i go in watch crossfit fail videos like from weightlifting like when i started crossfit i didn't tell any of my weightlifting buddies for like until they saw me like on espn and like i was getting texts or

22:47 Yeah. was my first experience with the crossfit gym and it was this huge gym amazing coaches that like should have like okay this is a workout that you can do like we've balanced it all out yeah and i so that you know that you're going to get a really good workout, they want to give the customer the best experience they can. I was lucky enough that just by random

25:30 side of it has to i mean you're you're built like a fucking brick shithouse well i would imagine Oh, man. child sitting there and she's like no you're not allowed to leave until you clean your plate i'm just because I didn't know how to handle it. Um, and so with CrossFit, I wanted to make sure that friends it's like no like from eyes open to eyes closed revolves around this so when we talked

28:32 uh vitamins a shitload of beta alanine yeah yeah nothing nothing crazy oh i love that stuff works like your mouth gets tingly right away because it had the direct contact there and you would do that all right, I wish I could tell you, As soon as I come off the floor, it's like, like no no no he's he knows what he's doing yeah he's he's dumping sugar into his muscles so it was

31:33 and uh and he was telling me he's like like don't drink the bottled gatorade drink like you buy the And so it's like, It's like, i had good performances the last couple years so i'm like all right what you told me is working down the bar swinging out they're're not catching the bars efficiently. to do like pure dedicated Olympic weightlifting first. i think it's a necessity to do pure dedicated

34:41 You're working off percentages to build up to that heavy it's like i know how to move my body by using using my hips like i'm getting that pop out of continued to hit strength number prs throughout my career right but you already have this base yeah i think just get on get on an air bike and start hammering away right now there's not much technique going on

37:46 And I'm in the back rowing one day. I'm pulling with my arms early. It's the same with the rower. And especially if, like, the bigger you are, the better. So like usually right around 195, give or take. built like a you know a bowling ball that's you're not yeah when you attack like that it's not running You know, your knees are blowing out. So, you know, like when I want to get better at deadlifting, like, I don't know how the

41:26 I was terrible. What were you doing wrong? Uh, I mean, my breathing was super sporadic, cadence and like, and then finding, all right, where's the bottleneck in my running? You know, yeah yeah well just sort of imagine like for heavier people that you know the the pounding or 60 pounds oh jesus yeah like it gets it adds up yeah that i would think would be terrible for your

44:22 know if it was a joke if someone was or if it was a real thing no one gives a fuck I mean just the way Look at these people. There's referees that are making sure You're running. speed walk marathon and it was like the marathon ended on the track and they had to do two laps Yeah, he lost his shoe. I'll catch you This was, yeah We don't encourage that.

47:28 throwing each other around brutes they all like none of them can use earbud headphones they can that's cool. And as they're coming in, Yeah, that's unfortunate. You can drain it, too, you silly gooses. It's nasty. I guess it stops hurting after a while, right? tear off. She was so tough. And I was clicking so fast I lost it There's a rock in there I'm like, sometimes I'll walk around at 201.

51:22 I remember seeing him, and even when he fought, you see him, you're like, all right, he's a big dude. But he weighed in at 205 he was huge yeah i like i remember seeing him and like even when he fought you you see me like Well, you should meet Francis Ngannou. Well, you gotta think Chuck has been involved in martial arts and wrestling since he was a little kid.

52:22 I mean, I think it's like any physical sport like that like i mean and he's throwing his entire body into you yeah Yeah. Yeah, I started working with a body work guy, Like, he just makes your muscles supple. on like you're not getting blindsided by some like 200 pound d lineman right 300 pound d lineman just you're earning 25 30 million a year there's not much i won't do for 25 million a year right and

55:19 and it's like this is real Like, this happened in this world? and, like, 40 of them have been arrested. a sport that like i'm not getting knocked out on a regular basis did you watch the UFC this weekend? No. Crazy event. Well, I saw the one guy got DQ'd, right? one of the coaches for American Top Team. Well, if you have one... And then they switched it to if you have two hands down,

57:44 and Piotr tried to catch him as he was coming up. Both of his hands are up. See, even I'm thinking, okay, is that grounded or is it not grounded? No, he's the champion. stupid like why can't you get how come you can't kick him in the face? How come when a guy's lying on his back, I think. unless a knee or anything other than the sole kicks or knee strikes to the head of a grounded fighter,

1:00:20 Whether it be palms or fists for them to be considered grounded, Piotr Jan, it looked like he was starting to gain control of the fight and i sundays are open mats like if you want to come in and roll So, you're thinking about doing it now? I mean, just for like the workout, the mental challenge. like this grit and oh it was so cool the main event saturday night was really interesting

1:03:17 didn't even weigh in at the limit i mean well style bender he usually fights at 185 yeah he weighed in for this fight at i think it was like Because then you realize how much bigger and stronger Bohovic is. And for a guy like Bohovich, who's just, you know, there's this old saying that a great big man will always beat a great small man. I mean. Dominic Reyes went five rounds with John Jones,

1:05:30 kicking him in the body and then crazy power yeah and it doesn't make any sense like i mean i it's the same like any sport like all day long that's like kettlebells right yeah it's like sandbags like you're kind of doing So they send him to the Sahara And he makes his way all the way back to Morocco Two months. he's the number one ufc heavyweight contender yeah i feel like after you do that like life's easy

1:08:55 He hits this dude with a left hook and puts him in another dimension. Right here. the scariest derrick lewis is the other scariest he's another he's the scariest well he's one of the scariest derrick and he's weightlifting. bar is the further the weight is away from your center the more you have to pull back and compensate because the bone is going to be healed but if it's not giving you if it hardware is giving you a hard time we can go back in and take it out because the

1:12:27 I mean, I came after the surgery, I went back to weightlifting. I hit personal records. Like or from crossfit from crossfit not really um i i think it was like i came into crossfit with You felt it pop? and so like i remember like getting my mom being Like, she was like, it would hurt too much before it let go to, you can't pull it to that point without the pain being too much is it possible

1:15:49 of the few that will like regrow or heal itself so i had to wear like a full full leg brace for i i just got introduced to like what sarms are not that long ago and it was because someone got Here we go. SARMs are more focused on bone and muscle health. Okay. So that was this guy's reason was he was like oh i just bought it Serious safety concerns Oh, they're so good at what they do.

1:19:24 shit like even if I go in and like to the doctor because I'm sick and he'll give me a script of the WADA prohibited list. Okay. Yeah, I don't mess around with that shit. Nope. supplement company they're like i want to they want to just send you their products to try and His name's Derek, and he's got a website called, but he shows it in a way that i don't even think the fucking usada people understand

1:22:04 Someone must have spiked my shit. He's like, you can fuck with that. as he's breaking down this stuff he's doing it like step by step factual according to science And he shot his doped uploads inside of me. i remember that excuse came out. He did, right? Look at that. they were like it's not it's not even uh performance enhancer i'm like it makes you

1:25:11 Yeah, is something that fighters use because other fighters have been popped for that as well. metabolism francisco vargas and canelo alvarez tested positive cyclist alberto current Yeah, there was some... head movement incredible unreal canelo alvarez Dizon agreed to a minimum Yeah. Nah, but you didn't though, dude. So like 300 grand is nothing to scoff at as an annual salary.

1:28:20 Yeah. Well, that's why it was funny for you to just enter into these competitions, just to pick up a couple hundred bucks here. That's wild. of whole chocolate milk and yeah it's only fun when you're on the launching pad when you look back and you know you think either you work with it or you don't yeah i mean those times are they're fucking awesome they're

1:31:36 What do you think you're going to do? releasing it they're releasing it like it's a subscription thing yeah yeah subscription so it Yeah. Oh, I tried to retire a year ago. What's your travel schedule? When do you want to start training? And so he was like, you can't just tie that. now they have teammates and they're in that division um or yeah there haven't there haven't

1:35:43 you're putting yourself Doing full squat snatches, clean and jerks, squats, everything. 13 you're full of piss and vinegar you want to load up that barbell yeah and it's like like yo Take the weight off that bar guides stuff like that um but uh you know like i'm passionate about coffee Black Rifle coffee's great shit. It just breaks. We didn't even ask for it.

1:38:47 I mean, I'm good buddies with Evan. Like anytime I come to Texas, like I'll hit up Matt. has changed same furniture you know that's where where all the NASA astronauts used to go to. Here's the address. leaves and it's just sammy and i in this house and i'm like this is the creepiest fucking place of guys out there hunting but you know i wonder many animals they're going to have out there now because Texas' deep freeze killed so many animals.

1:41:46 cracked up like living in tennessee for the last couple years coming from vermont tennessee if they i grew up in boston so i'm used to driving in the snow and snow tires and yeah i just know how to Because Vermonters laugh at the snow that they get in Boston. No. Yeah. I've heard terrible things. But I think there's some real good in growing up like that, because it makes you appreciate warm weather.

1:44:47 If it's sunny out, especially early spring, like mud season, it's like you're out hiking. I mean, I remember growing up and I always said like, oh, I'll move move south like i have no connection to vermont i don't care any of this and then it was like we Yeah, that sounds about right. Huh. Yeah, a bunch of colleges there. they're packed vermont empty like it's everyone's during the summer they're out mountain biking

1:47:14 Not good. the stereotype of Southerners was always these slack-jawed people that were slow-minded. these poor people were infected infected by a terrible parasite and they just thought, Hookworms once sapped the American South of its health, yet very few realize they continue to affect that. Weeks later, victims succumbed to an insatiable exhaustion and an impenetrable haziness of the mind that some

1:50:00 Yeah, and the culprit behind the germ of laziness, Yeah, you're just making some shit up. but, I think I was telling him that somebody told me, Like that's where all that shit came from. And he's actually a specialist in infectious diseases. Worried about Yeah Just couldn't taste Energy was fine. Because their immune system was breaking down You don't do that.

1:53:20 They're wrestling and they're doing jiu-jitsu and they're on top of each other Yeah. seeing it was like whatever the acronym is for whatever the company that's putting out all these here if like you're gonna i mean for me i'm like i don't i don't buy the first generation of a phone a car nothing i'm I didn't even get it. No shit. social distance wear three masks wait for a vaccine, I was in the airport not long ago

1:56:33 The fucking governor of California is literally asking... on in between bites of food and he wasn't doing it dude and now recently he's telling people to put a mask on in between bites of food. And he wasn't doing it. and in that particular situation ventilators are not good because ventilators apparently they blow Yeah, like I know nothing about any of the medical backside of this shit.

1:58:34 Yeah. So you got it real early. test i was like okay cool like i'm still being cautious when i meet someone that you know they're uh, How'd you know you were getting it back? Smell a fart or something? No, I think it was just weird is that it was so weird how'd you know you're So, like, Sammy would look at me and be like, hey, you should shower. I understand people wanting others to take precautions,

2:01:06 So I'm just, my body's, and I know when things are weird. do anything about this like your immune system is not going to help you yeah nothing's going to help that whatever you do you just need to get vaccinated you need this because otherwise february of last year we thought that this was going to kill 10 of the population now i know assumption that hey i can eat fucking cheeseburgers and drink shakes and and not exercise ever and not

2:04:46 netflix all day when when i know i'm training the very next day i know what i'm doing in 24 hours This is nice. Not even go on walks? that are like a warmup for me a month ago. every other day i'll go for like a 10 minute jog or like do some squats with like 135 something until I'm like this lump on the couch that I just hate. Two weeks. I can grab a worldwide win,

2:08:34 hammering, Yeah. dark out yeah me too and he says it's so creepy because you just got this one little window that But, I mean, it gets. Turn that light back on. So mine's's identical to that but it's even shorter off at 37 it'll kick on at like 41 or something it's fucking cold and how long are you doing that Yeah. No, no. So I'll end on cold if I'm going into a rest day.

2:12:41 how effective that is yeah to do those i mean things. I remember reading the stats of like you sleep better after a sauna if you do it at night. because of the amount of heat shock proteins your body generates. So it's just massively healthy for your body. But then when I moved to Tennessee, I was like, I don't know where a sauna is. Like we got one. They're like, we haven't had a customer in here in years they're like we do all of our sales just sell drugs and so they're they were like yeah we're we're actually closing the

2:14:57 gonna be okay yeah just relax this guy i mean that's just a whole level look how comfortable Because when he hits people, it's different. iceland guy too have you ever met him no he's so big dude i met him and it was like, I felt like my brain like short circuiting because like he was so tall and so big. and like we're we're in like this big circle we're at a dinner and like they're going around

2:17:26 to go like he was competing and so i'm talking to uh my buddy rob he just finished the event dude yeah those guys diets are what is that oh my god that what he used to look like 2006 I watched a little bit of it. How big is that left thigh? That's not little yeah he's such a freak that left thigh that's a little he's still athletic well that might be a problem watching that man move boy look at that face

2:20:20 I want to see him hit a pad. Yeah, he's very rudimentary, but also you see his body is very stiff. Yeah. it's just you're not designed. up with an air hose but like it's it doesn't look like a real human especially when you know what I think it was like. Yeah. Like maybe he can do. Yeah. April, May, June, July, August, September. is like have his hands like loose yeah and you would want him to do is have his hands loose

2:23:47 But if someone could show him, like, there's guys that were big guys that have fluid technique. Who doesn't love this fucking guy? punches yeah and that's that's the difference he uses his whole body he's still enormous Mechanics. you can't hit those things hard right because they're just these little yeah flimsy little They're just punching each other,

2:26:12 See how he's just touching things and moving his body, like turning his hips and everything like that? I think they each got a million. Like, what's going to happen? And, you know, in the beginning he looked a little, you know, sluggish and slow, Mike's still scary, though. Guys have beat him before. to win they gotta beat me or like everyone else so it's like you're just training scared all the

2:28:46 And then like when he talked about like going out on the floor, And I just latched onto that. when you won it and then trying to win it a second time did you feel different that weights lifted off. You know, there's not this, like, When you look at the volume of work you guys have to do. Dude, I had the director of the CrossFit Games. That is literally the dumbest fucking thing. When you look at the volume of work you guys have to do.

2:30:39 talking about this is no no no no there's a different guy why why would he do that beyond me i don't think he was trying to get you to lose i don't know i mean there there was a couple things that What is the deal with the dude who started CrossFit? How did he start it? I thought he'd be built like you. I'm like, oh, we're going to see something. Or at least, like, when I thought I'm going to see the guy who created CrossFit, I thought he'd be built like you.

2:32:58 Like, and it was a, hey, how you doing? in the last couple years of like how he doesn't like the games what yeah he was like i don't it livelihood off this guys like it'd be cool if you didn't intentionally try to ruin this for me like already told him some other stuff oh did you i mean it's just a weird relationship because it's like yeah he says and he hasn't liked me for a long time do you think maybe like

2:36:21 like i got treated a certain way when I first came into the sport uh and it was basically like ah whatever like you're nobody and so I was like okay like I no i'm good like thanks i'm still waiting on that invite from 2014 but yeah what are you gonna do On the rings But that was all before CrossFit Like, he's, the stories you hear, it's like, holy shit, that's real, huh?

2:38:32 of just like racist and like womanize it like all this stuff started coming out and it's like holy construct the workouts entirely your own yeah do you have to know what you're doing like i've never So you don't even really have to be fit to own a CrossFit gym? like all the lockdowns. this is your business, run it however so long and you're only going to stay in business for so long so i think it's the intent of it is great of like no like

2:41:14 CrossFit paid for my yacht. of course it's going to be a bad news. And he thought – this is just one man's opinion. and i think it's really interesting you coming from that weightlifting background yeah you know when when i see like people dropping weights on their heads and shit when they get exhausted and And, yep. Just popped off both wrists. hit the ground and just ripped off both his hands but he made a full it was like a multiple year

2:44:58 Oh, Jesus. So, or, yeah, he was out in California. That's who it is. their opponent gets them in a guillotine and the guy's 200 pounds you've got 400 pounds on the top Gives you the tinglies. Scary shit. up a couple times there are a couple like the whole 2015 season you know i in 2014 i got second Slacked off, ate like shit. If I'm doing this, I'm doing it right.

2:49:05 So it's like, do I want to change that mistake? Like, no, it was a failure, Like what, what did, did, what did you do differently when, when the next season rolled finish up my training at like 10 p.m and i was like oh it doesn't matter what time of day But it's like, what are you going to part of being a person? okay, these five gold ones yeah like there's zero chance i may have one other gold one but i would have

2:52:21 my girlfriend lives in rhode island i live live in Vermont and getting close to a competition. I can't drive down to see her, you know, shit like So like, it's just looks like a giant light bulb next to your bed and it wakes you up with light instead of sound I got one of those. middle of every night 2 a.m always wake up have to kick off the blankets

2:54:44 kind of like toss it the crossfit games five years in a row you could literally do anything all you have to do is just decide yeah i'm excited I dedicate everything to CrossFit. do anything whatever with everything else man